Shawn P. Sullivan: Looking for some Halloween fun this weekend? Sanford's got it — if you dare

Thursday

Oct 28, 2010 at 3:15 AM

Shawn P. Sullivan, Editor of the Sanford News

I got a call the other day from a resident Jim Martell out on Grandview Avenue. He asked me if the Sanford News was taking photos of yards that are spooked out for Halloween.

I love Halloween, and yeah, I do try to get out there and take a picture of a decorated yard to publish in the last issue of the Sanford News in October. Last year we ran on our Community page a centerpiece photo of a ghoul at the haunted walk at Holdsworth Park in Springvale. Two years ago, we put on our front page the horror show that the Huffs had on their front lawn on Ridgeway Avenue.

So last week I headed out to Grandview Avenue, which is a couple of blocks behind CVS on Main Street. When I got to the house I liked what I saw — assorted tombstones with morbid ditties etched into them; leering jack-o-lanterns; a few ghosts; goblins attempting to crawl out of graves; a few bones strewn here and there.

I knocked on the door. The woman who answered gave me permission to shoot a few photos. And then she surprised me, for there is more to that yard on Grandview than meets the eye. The small structure adjacent to the house — the one that looks like nothing more than a shed — is in truth a winding haunted house with more than a few things in there to give you a fright.

The residence — 13 Grandview Avenue — has been hosting walk-throughs for those who dare on recent Friday and Saturday nights and will do so again this weekend. So all you trick-or-treaters out there — as well as those seeking scares a day or two in advance of the holiday on Sunday — might want to swing by Grandview Avenue this weekend between 7 and 9 p.m. You'll know which house I'm talking about; propped against the front gate is a sign warning of strobe lights and other haunted house trappings and advising children ages 10 and younger to be accompanied by a grown-up.

This is fun stuff. My friends and I did our share to create haunted yards on Halloween when we were growing up. Halloween fell on a Saturday in 1987 when my friends Aaron, Nate and Mike and I were sophomores in high school. We spent that morning and afternoon turning my yard on Shaw Street into as grim a nightmare as we could imagine. We hammered together thin slabs of wood to make crosses for graves. We stuffed gloves with leaves and buried them up to their wrists in dirt to suggest zombies scrambling to rise above ground. We bent glow sticks and tossed them into jack-o-lanterns to give their menacing smiles a green sheen.

We were most proud of the flying ghost we created. We tied a rope nice and taut between the roofs of my house and my neighbor's garage. We used a standard sheet to create a ghost and we attached it to a pulley we had affixed to the rope. I have no idea if my parents knew we were up on the roof or if my neighbor knew we had tied a rope to her garage, but it was worth it. When we first let go of that ghost and it "swooped" across my yard, we felt like those engineers must have felt down there in Orlando when they first walked through the Haunted Mansion at Disney World.

We thought we were geniuses.

We managed to attract quite a few trick-or-treaters and their parents that night. One by one, they filed through my small L-shaped yard, skirting tombstones and hands reaching from beyond the grave. When they turned the corner around my house and headed past the lilac trees, one of my friends leaped from the shadows and "hurled" with as much spray as he could muster a mouthful of mixes juices and chunks of fruit or whatever.

Hey. We were teenage boys. Of course we went for the gross-out.

Nowadays, kids still trick-or-treat in numbers that are fairly considerable, given that the innocent days of canvassing unknown neighborhoods is long, long gone. Here in Sanford, though, there are a few events planned this weekend that — judging from past Halloweens — promise to offer safe and exciting fun for families. And if you feel like heading out of town on Saturday night, there's a historical event in Newfield that looks like fun too.

In addition to the house on Grandview Avenue, consider these attractions:

-- Sanford Parks and Recreation will host its annual Fright Night Halloween Party in the Sanford Junior High School gymnasium this Friday, Oct. 29, from 5:30 to 7:45 p.m.

The event will be free to everyone; parents must accompany children of all ages.

A number of different community organizations are participating this year. The Lions Club will pop their popcorn. The Kiwanis Club will offer bobbing for apples. The Sanford High School Key Club will present a treasure chest game. There will be others games as well.

A costume and pumpkin-decorating contest for children ages 3 and younger will be judged at 6 p.m. Contests for children ages 4 and 5 will be judged at 6:20 p.m. Contests for children ages 6 and 7 will be judged at 6:40 p.m. Contests for children ages 8 and 9 will be judged at 7 p.m. and ones for children ages 10 through 12 will be judged at 7:15 p.m.

For more information, call the parks and recreation office at 324-9130.

-- Willowbrook Museum in Newfield will hold a Historical Haunted Halloween on Saturday, Oct. 30, from 6 to 9:30 p.m.

The event will be a chance to hear tales of historic Newfield Village as the spirits of residents come to life during a guided walking tour. You can learn about the history of Halloween, meet William Durgin and his three wives, hear about three poisonous deaths, listen to the sad story of a Civil War widow, and learn about punishments unruly students suffered at the school house and more. It'll all be not-too-scary fun for the whole family.

Refreshments will be included. Park in Willowbrook's parking lot at 70 Elm Street. And bring your own flashlight.

Adults can attend for $8; children under 12 can for $4 — or $3 if they're in costume.

For more information, call 207-793-2784.

-- The Sanford Elks will hold their annual Haunted House at 13 Elm Street this Sunday, Oct. 31, from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is free.

For trick-or-treaters ages 6 and younger, there will be a pumpkin patch that will be open from 4 to 6 p.m. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

-- Curtis Lake Church on Westview Drive will hold its annual "Trunk or Treat," in which families dress up in costumes, decorate their cars, park them in the church's lot and hand out goodies. The fun — which includes refreshments and games in the church's recreation area — starts at 5:30 p.m. And there will be fireworks at 7:25 p.m.

This is a free event, but donations of nonperishable food items for the local food pantry will be accepted.

For more information, call 324-0436.

My family and I over the years have attended a few of these events mentioned here. They're all fun. I could not confirm whether any of them this year will have such feats of technical wizardry as a sheeted ghost ambling along a highly visible rope on a pulley, but we can only hope.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Shawn P. Sullivan is the editor of the Sanford News. He can be reached at ssullivanfosters.com.

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